sutomcat
No recent Cali or Iggy awards; Mr Irrelevant
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- Aug 15, 2011
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SU News
BJ Johnson Attends Boeheim's Army Game, Discusses Future with La Salle (PS; Ditota)
The guys from 20th & Olney marched from the practice facility at Philadelphia University to the gym where The Basketball Tournament would be played. On their way, one team member spotted B.J. Johnson standing in a hallway.
"Who you rooting for?" he shouted.
Johnson, the former Syracuse forward, smiled and provided a thumbs-up endorsement.
"I gotta root for La Salle," he told a Syracuse reporter.
20th & Olney, a team of former La Salle basketball players, was playing Boeheim's Army, made up mostly of former Syracuse players.
Johnson left Syracuse after his sophomore season to transfer to La Salle. He will sit out a season before playing for the Explorers, a program situated about 10 minutes from his suburban Philadelphia home.
"I just felt that there was a better opportunity for me here," he said.
Johnson said he was close with plenty of players on both TBT teams, which prompted him to make the short drive to watch them play on a sweltering summer afternoon here.
He said he's spending the summer working out and attending classes at La Salle. He's unsure how he'll handle the self-imposed bridge year between basketball seasons. NCAA regulations will not allow him to suit up for the Explorers until 2016-17.
"Two or three guys have already been through it," he said. "They told me it's not as bad as it seems."
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Watching Boeheim's Army is Just Way Too Much Fun for SU Fans in July (TNIAAM; Keeley)
The weather on both Saturday and Sunday was gorgeous here. The kind of weekend you're supposed to feel terrible about staying indoors during. And yet, I just spent a decent amount of time inside watching two semi-pro basketball tournament games on my laptop and it was one of the most enjoyable Syracuse-related game-watching experiences I've had in a long time.
Boeheim's Army, the TBT team consisting mostly of former Syracuse Orange players from the past 20 years, finished the weekend two-for-two in Philadelphia and now moves on to the Super 17 Regional portion of the tournament in Chicago. Their first game was a relative cakewalk while the second game was a nail-biting overtime thriller that existed as a kind-of Greatest Hits of 21st Century Syracuse Basketball.
Eric Devendorf being a hothead and pissing people off (right after we find out he's into calming meditation)! Baye Keita inexplicably shooting! Terrence Roberts doing Terrence Roberts things! Mookie Jones on the bench! The SU team squandering a lead and almost blowing a game to a lower-ranked squad! Overtime! Fan heart attacks!
I already knew that the idea of a team made up of former Syracuse players would be fun, but if you're telling me this is what it's going to be like every year in The Basketball Tournament, I might need ESPN to carry all of these games because it's officially appointment television.
You know that feeling in your chest when you're watching a Syracuse basketball game? That feeling of impending dread, like you know something horrible is going to eventually happen and we just need to find a way to stave off misery for a little longer so we can survive and move on? That's what this was like. And I realized...I missed that feeling. As if I'm addicted to it.
That's what happened when you're a Syracuse fan.
One of the great joys of the weekend has been not only watching the games but watching along with Orange fans on Twitter and in the GameThreads. Clearly, a lot of you are just as deranged. It's also a credit to this fanbase that we even care, let alone get worked up over the possibility that Demetris Nichols & Co. might lose.
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Orange Watch Part II: 40 Seasons of Highs, Lows in Coach Jim Boeheim's Career (sujuiceonline.com; Bierman)
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Having covered the Orange and Orangemen during the entire Boeheim run, as we approach an astounding 40th season, we take a look back at the high and low moments of each campaign. (Part 1, covering 1976-77 through 1995-96, is here.)
1996-97: High-Not much to pick from in a non-20 win season, perhaps a 62-60 win at No. 12 Villanova. Low-Not showing up for the NIT game in the Dome against Florida State falling 82-67.
1997-98: High-A season sweep of Georgetown and a Sweet 16 finish. Low-An 85-61 blowout loss at home to unranked Seton Hall as No. 19 in the polls.
1998-99: High-Beating Indiana again for the Maui Classic title 76-63. Low-An uneven, and at times uninspired performance falling to Oklahoma State in an 8/9 NCAA game 69-61.
1999-2000: High-A 19 game winning streak out of the gate and a climb to a No. 4 ranking. Low-After a strong first half in which SU led by 10 over nearby crowd favorite Michigan State, the Spartans upped the tempo to win going away 75-58 in suburban Detroit, on route to winning the national championship.
2000-01: High-Winning the Great Alaska Shootout with wins over DePaul, Ohio State and Missouri, on route to a 15-1 start. Low-Falling to unranked Pittsburgh in the Big East semi-finals 55-54 in OT.
2001-02: High-Taking the preseason NIT at Madison Square Garden with wins over Michigan State and Wake Forest. Low-In a season filled with internal turmoil and some player disagreements, losses to South Carolina and Tempe in the postseason NIT at the Garden, including the semi-final game against the Gamecocks when both teams came out in white jerseys, necessitating a quick run to the team hotel to fetch orange jerseys.
2002-03: High-That championship season! Melo, GMac, Warrick, Edelin, Duany, Forth, Pace, and McNeil, and an incredible year filled with a lifetime of memories capped off by the big night in New Orleans to get “those four seconds back” and beat Kansas in the title game. Low-Are there any downers after a season of cutting down the nets?
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Other
"I Punched It": Surfer Mick Fanning Survives Shark Attack During Competition (PS; video)
Knocked off his board by an attacking shark, a surfer punched the creature during the televised finals of a world surfing competition in South Africa before escaping.
Australian surfer Mick Fanning was attacked by a shark Sunday during the JBay Open in Jeffrey's Bay in the Eastern Cape Province but escaped without injuries.
On a video on the World Surf League's website, Fanning is seen knocked off his surfboard. As he scans the water, two fins appear and he disappears under the surface. He is next seen furiously trying to swim to safety before a rescuer pulls him out of the water.
Back on land and shaking his head in disbelief, Fanning told spectators that he punched the shark.
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